Taiwan Day 3

Since i had a bad experience with Hotel's breakfast yesterday, i decided to wake up slightly late and pampered myself by having a great Brunch around XinMen area and i found a place that the food menu looks Nice and Yummy. So i just went to a restaurant named "Magic Curry" 魔法咖哩 located at level 3 in the building.

i ordered Spicy Chicken Curry set. it came with drink and 1 side dish. i choose fried potato croquette as the side dish. However, the concept they did similar to Coco Curry from Shanghai, its all about curry. And guess what..... FREE FLOW RICE and CURRY PASTE. wow... to make me really full, i top-up my rice and curry paste. lolz. i can't imagine if this happen in Singapore. People will just order 1 curry and free flow 10 rice and 10 curry to share. lolz. KIASU mood ON.

 After a good and full Curry Lunch, i went to Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall 中正纪念堂 located just 2 station away from XiMen Station (NTD25 MRT ride). They have a specific MRT from XiMen to C.K.S Memorial Hall (Light Green Line), so you do not have to squeeze yourself with people at Taipei Main Station. Okay, Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall is one of the most famous monument, landmark, and tourist attraction. The octagonal roof rises 76 metres (249 ft) above the ground and is covered with blue glazed tiles.

To find out more information regarding Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, just click HERE.

After enough cam whore, i continue the journey to next destination, Sun Yat Tsen Memorial Hall. well, the place is just full with Chinese from China. Other than the hall and musical fountain, the place had nothing to see and to take picture. so i just take picture of Taipei 101, which is just located few block from that place.

And without wasting my time more, walking around 15 minutes from Cityhall MRT to Taipei 101 straight away through different shopping center just to buy the ticket to the top floor of 101 (NTD450). You can purchase the ticket at level 5 of the shopping mall, which you can see the Observatory Entrance sign above Burberry and Louis Vuitton Boutique. The ticket show a number for you to queue. it have a specific timing to enter the top building. But AGAIN, hundred of Chinese people already queue at the entrance. it took 1 hour and 30 minutes just to enter the lift area.

Taipei 101 used to be the World's Tallest Building from 2004 before Officially Burj Khalifa, Dubai took over in 2010. So, to reach Level 89 of the building you can take the world fastest elevator, in which just took us 36 sec from level 5 to 89 with a maximum speed of 1010m/min. Amazingly fast. When i reached the top tower, i heard the notice said that the outdoor is temporary closed due to bad weather. Damn it. That's the main point i came to Taipei 101. Aaaargh...... So sadly, i just use my time to walk around level 89 and 88 for the view, since they don't have limited time per passenger. i also manage to buy some Magnetic opener with Taipei 101 building shape, and a glass with aerial picture around Taipei 101. So, this is the view outside the building, the aerial view of Taipei Cityhall.

To end my day, i had my late dinner at 101 food court at basement before heading back to hotel with tired and sleepy face. The average food there is around NTD160-300. and they have a lot of Japanese food all around Taipei. so, my dinner also a japanese set Pork and Chicken with steam vege and fried egg. it taste yummy and it just cost me NTD160 = SGD7. it cost reasonable as you can see the size of the meal is almost full of the tray. :)

Taiwan Day 2

I have to wake up slightly earlier on Day 2 at 7AM because it is the One day free city tour by local agency. My very cold and sleepy morning has start with not a good breakfast in Hotel as they only provide a very simple meal, like DIY toast, some fried mini sausages, hash-brown, steam bun, steam vegetable and congee. for drinks, they have fruit juices and 2 DIY coffee machine. Surprisingly, the coffee taste great. Trying to know what coffee that they use, but i failed to do so because quite number of people queue-ing for that. well, browsing through Hotel free Wifi with not that full, and the tour guide is arrived on time at 8am. Huff.....

The early in the morning tour starts at the first destination, Shihlin Presidential Residence Garden, Taipei City. As the name is ShihLin Guan Di 士林官邸, the place is more homy with large plot of garden around. This place used to be the official residence for Chiang Kai-Shek and his wife . Basically, the place is just like a smaller version of Singapore Botanic Garden but more colorful and more visitors from China overall. The weather that day is quite cool around 22degree. with a cup of warm Hazelnut coffee around, it makes me well warmer. lolz. However, despite of the cold weather, i still asking people around to help me take photo with my coffee. haha... :) In addition, the grounds also include Madame Chiang Kai-Shek's former Cadillac limousine, Chiang Kai-Shek's personal Victory Chapel, and the Xinlan Pavilion (新蘭亭).

Continued the journey to National Revolutionary Martyr's Shrine (國民革命忠烈祠). There are several Soldiers on site that will do some kind of performance 表演 once every 3 or 4 hours until 10PM (as what the tour guide told us on that day). Although the Martyrs Shrine is located in Taiwan, most of the soldiers honored served China and were born in Chinese provinces. With my very limited knowledge of Mandarin, i only understand 60% - 70% of what the tour guide told us. However, the main point is to take Photo.

After that, tour guide bring us to those place like Feng Shui Master, Mushroom & Honey distributor and Tea Retail. Well, i do understand that tour guide make get some commissions from the place that they bring people to buy, such as; buy some VERY EXPENSIVE Jade from Feng Shui Master, some weird mushroom tea and expensive honey. But honestly, it doesn't mean that i hate it because i do enjoy the free sample of tea and knowledge about Feng Shui, but i don't feel the necessary of visiting those places when you don't even have intention to to buy = Waste of Time. And also it is out of the actual Tour Schedule. Aish... But i actually ask the tour guide to skip the Tea Retail after the Buffet Lunch as it will be another time wasting journey and straight away go to the next destination, which is JiuFen 九份.

After a very FULL stomach buffet lunch around 1.30pm, we continue the journey to Jiufen. The Journey from Taipei to JiuFen take about 45-50 minutes bus ride to the mountain part, heading toward north east of Taiwan. I feel amaze with the number of tourist there. thousand of people is visiting that Historic Prosperous Gold Mining Town. The pedestrian street at Commercial District of JiuFen is rather small and pack with people. The surface is rather up hill. But they have A LOT of good food and snacks there. I bought few packs of Black peanut (NTD100 each), Taiwan Mochi (NTD100 Each), some pineapple, Green tea and red bean cake. at the same place, i also bought some Cute Magnetic toy souvenir for friends. The size is same size with my thumb and if i'm not mistaken it cost NTD40 each.

From JiuFen, we went over to a hot spring place. i have no idea what place is that, but it is rather up hill village and not a resort kind of hot spring. Rather than disappointed, i just enjoy the Sulfur hot spring for an hour there. Not as strong as the hot spring in my country, but i feel relax. If you have a plan to visit Hot spring, not to forget to bring your own towel. They sell it for NTD250 for just a simple yet not a good quality towel, and maybe it is re-useable, as i found a washing machine behind the place. lolz.

Last place and the most exciting of the day is Shilin Night Market. Nobody will visit Taiwan without visiting this Largest Night Market in Taiwan. We reached there around 6.30PM and most of the shops and street food has just started to sell, so just nice to start the mission, EAT and EAT and EAT. haha...

With unexpected yet happy feeling, i found my most favorite Shanghai Sheng Jian Bao along the street there. With no regret of getting fatter, i bought 3 Bao at the same time (NTD25 each) and eat them warmly. This Bao is one of the famous 上海生煎包 in Wu Jiang Lu, Shanghai. I used to queue and eat this Bao almost every week during my study time in Shanghai 3 years ago. Not too healthy because they use Styrofoam to pack as it melt of the heat from the Bao. So, need to eat that BAO almost immediately. For those who don't know, BAO = Dumpling.

Shilin Night Market also famous with their Oyster vermicelli Noodle (蚵仔麵線) Taiwanese (hokkian) they called it O A Misua. Basically, this dish is made primarily with wheat flour and salt, and gains its unique colour due to a steaming process which caramelizes the sugars in the dough allowing it to be cooked for longer periods without breaking down. However, knowing this from the tour guide earlier, OA Misua also quite famous in XiMen Ting. But i can't found it there, sadly.

Another famous eater in Shilin Night Market is Fried Chicken Steak (炸雞排). Looking at people eating those chicken make me more eager to find "where the hell" is the shop. lolz. After exploring for 20minutes, i finally found it at the end of the Road, which the another entrance to the Night Market. Again, surprisingly need to queue AGAIN for another 20 minutes just to but those Fried Chicken.

To end the day, i tried the famous Taiwan Ice Kacang at one of the stall there. Because i saw quite alot of people eating inside and queue-ing outside. Talking about Queue, this remind me of my morning conversation with my tour guide. He told me, "If you see no one in the shop, it is either Not delicious or too Expensive". in my heart, they also feel like Singaporean, KIASI. lolz.

Taiwan Day 1

Woohoo... finally. after quite sometimes, This is it. the time for me to travel somewhere further. Yeap, Taiwan Here i come. :)

 I fly with SQ A330-300 from SIN-TPE. quite a small and packed during that morning flight. Just a quick flash back history, After quite a long time since Singapore Airline remove Medan from one of their destination, i hardly fly with SIA since then. Because numbers of Budget flight is around us. However, for quite a long haul destination, i will definitely not a budget type of person. so, during NATAS 2012, i got quite a good package from Dynasty Travel, Taipei Free n easy is SGD $965 include Air Ticket by SIA, airport taxes, 5 days hotel, and 1 full day city tour. And i think that is quite a good deal.

So back to my journey, the brunch menu from SQ flight is rather interesting. i decided to choose Oriental menu for that day. After arrived at TaoYuan Int'l Airport, the excitement feeling is getting stronger, as that is my first time visiting Taiwan. Someone is picking me up from Airport to Hotel. I stayed at ECFA hotel in Xi Men Ting area. surprisingly, ECFA Hotel is just the same like Hotel 81 singapore. Well, don't care about the place i stay because it is just purely shower and sleep. other than that, i will definitely be outside hotel. So, first thing i did after i reached hotel is to find a good Lunch around XiMen Ting area. Good weather on that day 22 degree so i can walk around without perspiring. difficult to find a good food, i just enter McDonald's to eat. and i can tell you that do not ever try McDonald's in Taipei. it taste horrible and the fries is sucks. Brrrr......

Well after late lunch, i straight away went to Tamshui for their famous local food, A-gei (阿給, āgěi), which are deep fried tofu that have been stuffed with crystal noodles and sealed with fish paste and drizzled with spicy sauce on the outside. Tamsui fish ball (魚丸, yúwán), because Tamsui is near the ocean, therefore, it is a good place to try their fish balls, which are balls of fish paste stuffed with meat and garlic cooked in light broth, in which 3 dish of that (in picture) cost me around NTD120. MRT journey from XinMen Ting to TamShui is around 30 minutes, which is just NTD40 (SGD1.20) for the coin.

The famous TamShui Old Street and Night Market is just a 2minutes walking distance from the MRT station. Alot of cheap food, snacks and drinks for you to taste there. They have alot of free food and drinks for you to try. so, just take it. it's free and taste nice. i also did a caricature picture of myself by local artist for only NTD250 (SGD12 dollar). :)

 

During sunset time, i took bus ride to Danshui Fisherman's Wharf 淡水漁人碼頭 to look at a famous bridge called Lover's Bridge. As that place is famous for pre-wedding photo for local and also some of celebrities held their concert there as well. Not so amazing, but there have A LOT of yacht around. Rich place huh. :)

Do enjoy the rest of the photo and the journey "To be continued..." for day 2 tomorrow.